Coach Jon Heacock has a 50-31 record at Youngstown State since taking over the program in 2001.

Pushed by past success -

The adage is that a coach doesn't want to be the coach who follows the legend. He wants to be
the coach who follows the coach who follows the legend.

That isn't the way it happened for Jon Heacock at Youngstown State. But he said he would not
have it otherwise.

"I have always appreciated the fact that I
got to follow Jim Tressel," he said. "Not that I
have to follow him, but I
get to follow him."

Tressel left Youngstown State for Ohio State in 2001 after coaching the Penguins to a record of
135-57-2 and four Division I-AA championships in 15 years.

Heacock, his defensive coordinator, succeeded him. Youngstown State is 50-31 and has won the
Gateway Conference championship twice in his seven seasons -- but has returned to the NCAA playoffs
only once.

Youngstown State and Ohio State open the season against each other in Ohio Stadium for the
second year in a row Saturday. Heacock's older brother, Jim, is the Buckeyes' defensive
coordinator.

"Most of the fans are kind of unhappy they haven't gone to the playoffs but one time" under
Heacock, said Pete Mollica, who covers the Penguins for
TheVindicator in Youngstown. "But what Jon's doing is quite a bit more difficult
than when Tressel was here."

Six of Tressel's nine playoff appearances came in years in which Youngstown State was not a
member of a conference.

"He was independent. He would schedule his own schedule" to improve the odds of making the
playoffs, Mollica said. "Jon's stuck with seven league games" in a conference that this year
includes two of the top three teams, North Dakota State and Northern Iowa, in the national
preseason poll. Southern Illinois is ranked No. 11 and Youngstown State is No. 12.

Youngstown joined the Gateway -- renamed the Missouri Valley this year -- in 1997 and did not
win the league title in the four seasons before Tressel left for Ohio State. But he won his fourth
NCAA championship one of those years and reached the title game in another.

In the Penguins' one playoff appearance under Heacock, two years ago, they reached a semifinal
before losing to eventual champion Appalachian State.

"We haven't had some of the success (Tressel's teams had), but I think, in fairness, times have
changed" in the Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA), Heacock said. "That's not an excuse. But
it's a very different thing than it was in the past."

Heacock's teams twice have won eight games and not made the playoffs. Four of Tressel's playoff
teams, including his first national championship team, won eight games during the regular
season.

"My inner peace comes from knowing we're doing things the right way," Heacock said. "We're
treating people right. We're working hard every minute of every day and doing the best we can.
Somebody else will decide whether that's good enough."

That person, athletic director Ron Strollo, concurs with Heacock that the Championship
Subdivision has changed because of the increasing number of players transferring down from Bowl
Subdivision schools so they don't have to sit out a year.

But Strollo said the fan base has remained supportive.

"The best way to show that is through revenue and attendance figures," he said, "and our revenue
has been up virtually every year and attendance has remained in the top 10 in the country. So we
haven't seen a great drop-off."

Heacock acknowledges that at times it has been difficult to be the coach who followed the legend
because "there are tremendous expectations.

"But I think it has made me a better person and a better coach," he said. "It has really forced
me to be as good a coach as I can be. It has set my standards higher, pushed me harder, caused me
to be more focused to be as good as I can be."